Welcome to the little Tuesday wedged in between my Sew Early 4 Christmas tutorial yesterday and our next Beary Colourful Bear pattern tomorrow!
Poor Tuesday! He had his big turn last week, with the Christmas in July blog hop…… but just because he is not the star of the Clever Chameleon blog this week doesn’t mean he can’t be inspiring.
He most certainly can!
Today’s blindingly bright colours are inspired by a little charity quilt that has just passed through my sewing room, cheering the place up as it went. I don’t know if I’d make myself a quilt in these colours, but it was nice to borrow them for a while. We all need a little cheering up occasionally. Let me brighten your day with this little orange quilt, another nice orange story from my week and a little look at the start I’ve made on my August Island Batik quilt.
It feels like a really long time since I have put out a Colour Inspiration Tuesday Collection. In fact, it is a long time in the life of a blog…. 12 weeks, with Christmas and New Year and two Beary Colourful Bear patterns and all sorts since then!
Since the last Colour Inspiration Tuesday Collection there have been a lot of people come on board with the Beary Colourful BOM and the Monthly Colour Challenge who may not have explored the dim dark past of the Chameleon. I am truly delighted to have you all join us, and I hope you will also enjoy some of the other ideas that I explore here in between the bears.
A quick summary of the ideas behind Colour Inspiration Tuesday Collection 5…..
Welcome back to Colour Inspiration Tuesday! Today we are exploring a new FMQ mini tutorial “She’ll be Apples”.
Last week I was suddenly inspired to quilt my next charity quilt. I’ve had the pinned quilt in my possession since before Christmas, but I always knew it wasn’t going to get touched until January. Partly because December is a ridiculously busy time of year, and partly because it wasn’t “speaking to me”. In fact, it was confusing me slightly…. apples and roses on one side, autumn leaves, nuts and berries on the other. I quite like both sides, but struggled to choose one quilting theme to make sense of this quilt.
Here is the charity quilt before quilting….. I nominated it as my January One Monthly Goal.
After musing over this quilt for some time, on and off, and getting it out several times and putting it away again, inspiration finally struck. I was in a right-brain kind of mood and scrolling through photos on Unsplash over a coffee when I spotted the picture of apples I have used on today’s mood board. And it all somehow just fell into place. I *just knew* I had to quilt apples, but not just any apples. Apples with a little bit of cheeky thrown in!
The “She’ll be Apples” FMQ Motif
I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and started doodling. First I started with a continuous line apple motif.
Then I thought, what if the apple has a bite taken out of it? Well, that’s easy.
And it’s no more trouble to take several bites, is it?
But what if the apple has a worm in it? A friendly worm, of course!
And of course, I couldn’t resist…… The worm and the bite combination! This one’s for my daughter, who is at that age where one of her favourite jokes is “What’s worse than finding a worm in your apple?” “Half a worm…..” Hahahaha Snort. Oh the joys of childhood! Anyway, I was mostly well behaved….. I only put this combo on the quilt once. And I did overrule my daughter’s request for the apple and half a worm motif…..
She’ll be Apples Quilting in Real Life
Here are some pics of the quilting up close, and of the little charity quilt all done. Sorry, the quilting does not show well – which is exactly how I wanted the quilt to be, but it is excruciating to try to photograph.
Apple FMQ motifThe apple with a bite FMQ motifApple core motifThe apple with a friendly worm motifAnd the one instance of an apple with both a worm and a bite
It didn’t take very long to quilt this little lap quilt. Once I had got the hang of the basic apple shape, I found quilting these to be quite quick and easy. In fact, I had the whole thing finished before I realised that there is another apple variation that I could have added. The half apple. No matter, I will save this idea for another day.
If you would like to give the apple motifs a go, I have made you a printable reference page, which you can download here: She’ll be Apples pdf
And here is the finished quilt. The quilting has made it crinkly and cuddly. 🙂
So, that’s my January One Monthly Goal done and dusted! I promised you I’d had a lot of fun with it!
I hope you have enjoyed this little project and might put some apples on a quilt soon. My daughter is currently requesting apples on the Regatta Quilt I am making for her. Yes, complete with a half-worm apple. It’s not what I had in mind at all……. the big question is…. “How old will she be before such a thing becomes “cringe-worthy”?” The Regatta Quilt is supposed to take her forward into her teens. Then again, maybe I should just do it. Kids are not young for very long. are they? And there’ll be plenty more quilts. Thankfully there is still some thinking time on this until I get to the quilting stage of the Regatta Quilt. I’ll see what she thinks when I actually get that far.
P.S. Photo Credits
The photo which sparked the apple motifs was supplied for free by Marina Khrapova via Unsplash. You can find this photo, as well as many others I have used for Colour Inspiration Tuesdays here. They are all available for free for you to use in your own projects however you wish.
Would you like to keep in touch with Clever Chameleon and the fun quilty ideas I design as well as find all over the internet? You can follow directly for email updates, or through Bloglovin’, Pinterest or FB. All your follow options can be found here.
One final FMQ design for 2017 – Water and Hibiscuses (a mini tutorial)
As we rapidly approach the end of the year, I am trying to get the Vanuatu Turtle Quilt done and dusted. One less UFO to carry over to the New Year!
Vanuatu Turtle Quilt top finished at our last check in
So I have used my free time this week, such as it was(!) to piece a backing for this quilt, layer and pin it up and design the quilting.
The backing I pieced for the Vanuatu Turtle QuiltI don’t normally pin at this density….. but some of the fabrics in this quilt are not quilting cottons and have some stretch. I wanted everything to be super secure.
To complete this quilt, I knew I wanted to quilt something curvy……. waves or such like to contrast with the geometric black and white piecing and to evoke thoughts of water. But it needed to be subtle. The black and white graduation in the piecing and the red turtle appliqué are enough major design elements for one quilt. So, quilt something curvy in lightweight grey thread……
I was originally thinking spirals of some description, but as I was piecing the backing, I decided that the hibiscuses on the back were simple enough to become FMQ designs.
The hibiscus motif that is repeated continuously in the main black and white fabric used in the backing.
Working up the Hibiscus FMQ design
My first attempts at drawing the hibiscuses out with a pencil were appalling…..
Not good….. misshapen clover leaves, anyone?Repeated attempts became better…. better petals, better stamens, better line flow.Eventually I got a formula for a single line hibiscus that I liked. Here it is traced out.
At this stage I was still thinking to pair this hibiscus FMQ with swirls, when I decided that perhaps that was going to get complicated and busy, when I expressly wanted simple. So I opted to go with a design I do relatively often which is kind of a sideways elongated stipple…… and looks a bit like the gentle wavy surface of slowly moving water. I’m sure many of you do it too. Like this……
Water and Hibiscus FMQ design
I have started quilting this design onto the Vanuatu Turtle quilt. It is hard to photograph though, as it recedes into the quilt. Only to be observed by the most up-close and observant users. As per the original plan. 🙂
Hibiscus FMQ designHibiscus FMQ with “water”
So, if you would like to try this hibiscus FMQ design, here it is broken down into steps for you.
Step 1
Quilt into an open space. Double back to quilt a heart shape. Do not quite close the shape.
Step 2
Repeat the heart shape to create four more petals. The petal shapes can be fairly uneven, as long as they adhere to the rough heart shape and return almost but not right to the centre. The five points at the bases of the petals should sit in a small ring formation.
Step 3
Quilt a hooked stamen into the space defined by the first petal.
Step 4
Create one or two more hooked stamens in the second petal and some flatter stamens in the lower petals. Exit the flower between any two petals.
You can download all the steps on a one page pdf here: hibiscus.
I hope you enjoy trying the Water and Hibiscus FMQ motifs at some point, perhaps in 2018. And I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a safe and happy Christmas holiday.
Welcome to a short and sweet episode of Colour Inspiration Tuesday
I have been on this blog a lot the last week, so I’ll keep this brief. I was blog binge-reading on Saturday when I came across something I didn’t know, that I wish I had known a long time ago. So I am sharing it with you, on the off chance that you don’t know it either.
Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Blacklight Blue
One of the quilting blogs I love to keep an eye on is Tamarack Shack. Kathy Schwartz is a longarm quilter way out of my league, and I love the eye-candy that she shares from her professional quilting business. And this week I got an extra helping of happiness from Kathy’s blog…… Kathy shared a quilt marking tip that she had recently realised not everyone knew. Wait for it…….You can see quilters’ chalk on light fabrics under blacklight! Ummmmm, I’m sure you’re excited, right?!
Well, I was excited. I had to know right then, if it was true! I got up off my bottom at once, found my son’s blacklight torch (one of those that comes with invisible ink spy sets for kids) and my chalk wheel. I drew several chalk lines on my Vanuatu Turtle Quilt (because that was what was at hand with white fabric).
Quilters’ chalk on light fabric
And turned on the torch.
Quilters’ chalk on same fabric under blacklight torch
Now, I think I have mentioned that I don’t really trust marking pens, and avoid using them as much as possible. Now I have a new weapon in my arsenal that gives me an option I do trust.
Guess what I am asking for for Christmas….. a blacklight of my own….. I have to put this torch back before I get accused by DS, fairly or otherwise, of making it go flat!
If you want to follow this up, the specific post where Kathy shares this tip can be found here. She uses the blacklight on her longarm to see pounce chalk. She also shares about her new design wall – another thing I need to get on top of one day.
P.S. I was honoured to have a 
